A quick guide to creating high quality barcodes using the Precision Engine

• Min Bar Width
  If you are creating barcodes for in-house use, you can typically use the default value of 0. The software will automatically calculate the Min Bar Width based on the Width of the image that you have specified. In some instances, you may be required to follow certain industry specifications for your barcode. For such scenarios, the industry specifications will provide you with supported values of the Min Bar Width. Set the Min Bar Width to one of the supported values. The Min Bar Width is specified in twips, which is 1/1440 inch. This is a high resolution parameter supported by the Precision Engine.


• Bar Ratio
  This option is only supported by certain barcodes such as Code 39, I2of5, Codabar and ITF14 family of barcodes. The option will only be enabled for these barcodes. This is a ratio of the thick bar to the thin bar in the barcode. A larger ratio will result in a barcode with a longer width. If you are not constrained by size, set this value to the highest supported for a barcode that is scannable more easily.


• Resolution
  We recommend you to set this value to at least 300 dots per inch (DPI). This will result in better quality barcodes. It is important to note that most modern printers are able to print at resolution higher than 300 DPI. You can thus set the Resolution to values higher than 300 if you use modern printers for printing the barcodes.
  
  If you have a Thermal Printer, there is a possible chance that it is of 203 DPI. In this case, set the Resolution to 203 DPI to match the resolution of the printer. Do not be tempted to set the DPI to 96 which looks good on most computer screens. When these barcodes are printed, you will face problems scanning the barcodes.


• Human Readable Text
  You may have noticed that changing the Resolution of the Image affects the way you set the Font Size in the Human Readable Text. This is a design decision made by our development team in the Precision Engine. We recommend you to first set the Resolution, then adjust the Font Size accordingly to generate a high quality image that will look good in naked eyes and is easily scannable.


• Barcode Boundary in Pixels
  The Width/Height options specify the size of the barcode image without the boundary. This is useful for you to adapt the barcode dimension to most industry specifications. After setting up the size of the barcode, you may be required to provide some space around the barcode. You can then use the Barcode Boundary options in this case.